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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27703949">Baby, I'm Yours</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesignatedGrape/pseuds/DesignatedGrape'>DesignatedGrape</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The road is long with many a winding turn [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Schitt's Creek</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Conversations, Gen, Introspection, M/M, Pre-Episode: s04e11 The Rollout</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 04:21:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,345</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27703949</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesignatedGrape/pseuds/DesignatedGrape</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexis stares at him for a moment, her eyes unblinking but not unkind. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you.”</p>
<p>Patrick feels his cheeks heat. It’s not a question. She knows. </p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Patrick Brewer &amp; Alexis Rose, Patrick Brewer/David Rose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The road is long with many a winding turn [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2076114</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>62</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>324</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Baby, I'm Yours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I have a lot of fuzzy feelings about Patrick and Alexis's quasi-sibling relationship.</p>
<p>Thanks to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poutini/pseuds/Poutini">Poutini</a> for giving this a read-through and for being a lovely person.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sun is setting as Patrick turns into the motel parking lot, and the hazy streaks of  pink and orange light filtering through the trees are casting long shadows across the lawn. Dinner took longer than they were expecting thanks to a retirement party using half the tables in the restaurant, so he's hoping this will be a quick stop. He pulls into the space outside David’s room, pulls the key out of the ignition, and turns to David. “Just a few minutes, right?”</p>
<p>“Yeah.” David unbuckles and gets out of the car, and Patrick follows. “I just need to pack an outfit for tomorrow, and then we can go. I have plans for you.” He levels Patrick with a look that makes him want to slam David up against the motel door. </p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>A look that makes Patrick want David to slam <em> him </em> up against the motel door.</p>
<p>Patrick swallows around the tang of the adrenaline that leapt into his throat and does his best to keep his voice even. “Oh? What kind of plans, exactly?”</p>
<p>David unlocks the door to his motel room and looks back at Patrick as he pushes it open. “Maybe if you’re good, I’ll do that thing with my tongue where I—”</p>
<p>“Oh my god, ew, David!”</p>
<p>David’s head whips around to where Alexis is seated at the table, her eyebrows furrowed in horror, and Patrick is so, so glad that David didn’t finish that sentence.</p>
<p>“What are you doing here? I thought you’d be at the cafe with Mom and Dad!” David walks to the dresser and places his bag next to the TV, before bending to open his cedar chest and select a sweater. Patrick closes the motel door and moves to sit on the black throw at the foot of David's bed. With Alexis here, this is probably going to take more than a few minutes.</p>
<p>“Mom is having dinner with the Jazzagals tonight, and Dad is in the office with Roland. And I happen to have a ton of work to do for Singles Week, so if you could shush, please!”</p>
<p>David peers over at the photos of dogs spread out on the table. “I thought you were working on the pet adoption stuff yesterday. Ted was here for at least an hour.” David’s voice takes on a teasing edge and he raises an eyebrow at her, but Patrick is confused by what he’s implying. Isn't Ted still dating Heather Warner?</p>
<p>“Yes, but that was just the first meeting,” Alexis says primly. “We still have, like, a ton of decisions to make about the...the flyers, and the...handouts, and the venue, and the location…”</p>
<p>Patrick wonders if she realizes she’s only actually listed two different things.</p>
<p>"Shouldn't you be waiting for <em>Ted </em> before you make any decisions?" </p>
<p>"Um, if I can help organize a minor coup to overthrow the local government of Thessaloniki, I'm pretty sure I can handle organizing a puppy adoption event, David."</p>
<p>That's a story Patrick hasn't heard before. He should be horrified, probably, but it takes a lot to shock him, now. Before Patrick met the Roses, he didn’t know it was possible to be simultaneously bemused and charmed. But then he met David...and Alexis...and Mr. and Mrs. Rose...and that feeling became as familiar as breathing.</p>
<p>Alexis continues to prattle on about Ted and Singles Week, but Patrick is only half listening to her; the rest of him is thinking about the fact that Ray will only be out until 9 p.m. and they really should get going if they want to have any hope of taking advantage of some actual privacy tonight before Patrick has to leave tomorrow morning for a two-day business seminar in Thornbridge. </p>
<p>He fully tunes back in to Alexis just in time to hear, “...and then Ted said, ‘Well, if some of the singles don’t find love, maybe they’ll at least take home a new fur-iend! Being lonely is ruff!’” </p>
<p>Patrick winces at the terrible puns, but Alexis doesn’t notice. She giggles to herself and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear as she turns her attention back to the pictures and documents in front of her, smiling with her lips pressed together just like David often does, in that way that means he's forcing himself to keep his happiness from spilling out into the room for fear of leaving himself too vulnerable. </p>
<p>In that moment, the realization springs into Patrick’s mind unbidden, so quickly that he doesn’t have time to push it away. </p>
<p>
  <em> She’s in love with him. </em>
</p>
<p>It feels like an invasion of privacy to suddenly know, with absolute certainty, something so personal about Alexis. He looks over at David to catch his eye and see if he’s thinking the same thing, but his boyfriend is busy refolding his sweater for the third time to fit it into his overnight bag just so. Does David already know? He must. David likes to pretend that his family annoys him to no end, and maybe they do, but David understands them—their motivations, their fears, their insecurities—and he understands Alexis most of all. He’s surprised that David hasn’t told him; but then again, maybe he shouldn’t be. David, at his core, is a protective big brother, and as much as he loves gossip, Patrick knows he wouldn’t betray Alexis's trust about something that really matters.</p>
<p>Patrick thinks about the day that David came back to the store on the day of the vendor visit to Heather's farm, shaking out his hands and talking rapidly about how awkward it was that Ted was there, but how once Patrick had rubbed his shoulders and stilled his hands and kissed him softly, David had relaxed and told him with such pride in his voice that Alexis was the one who made the exclusivity deal happen. </p>
<p>He thinks about what Rachel had told him on that awful day almost two months ago, how she had met Alexis in the motel lobby that morning when Alexis was trying to figure out how to respond to a text that she thought might be some guy trying to reconnect with her.</p>
<p>He thinks about his countless interactions with Alexis over the past six months, and all the times that Ted came up in conversation, even long after Alexis stopped working at the clinic, and Patrick wonders how he never noticed before.</p>
<p>Maybe because he was too busy falling in love with her brother.</p>
<p>"David! Could you come in here, please?" Mr. Rose's voice calling through the open door interrupts his thoughts.</p>
<p>“Why?” David shouts back.</p>
<p>"I need to talk to you about the Rose Apothecary partnership with the motel!”</p>
<p>"You come in here!" </p>
<p>Patrick's eyes dart between David and the doorway as if he's watching a tennis match, but Alexis is unaffected, engrossed in reading what looks like a mock-up of a flyer for the event. </p>
<p>“It will just take a minute!"</p>
<p>"I'm busy!"</p>
<p>"David!"</p>
<p>Before Patrick can interject and offer to go talk to Mr. Rose himself, David throws up his hands with an exasperated “Ugh!” and abandons his packing to storm into the next room, pulling the door shut behind him.</p>
<p>Patrick stares at the closed door, listening to the not-so-muffled conversation about delivery dates and product cost. Part of him feels like he should go in there to help David, but it sounds like Mr. Rose is just being the old CEO version of Mr. Rose, wanting to arrange and rearrange things that are already settled on a whim, and David knows how to handle that much better than Patrick does.</p>
<p>David’s voice pitches higher, exasperated, when Mr. Rose starts suggesting removing body wash from the order and adding additional bars of soap, and Patrick can’t help but smile at the change in timbre. He can picture exactly what David looks like now: thick eyebrows raised to his hairline, expressive hands waving, beautiful mouth open and downturned in disbelief. In those first few months when he had just met David, Patrick would catalog every one of David’s minute facial movements, labeling and sorting them during the day and reviewing them each night as he replayed their interactions in his mind, searching for evidence that maybe, just maybe, Patrick’s feelings were reciprocated.</p>
<p>He has lots of favorite expressions from those early days: the proud look David gave Patrick, with lips bitten between his teeth, when he defended his “one-stop-shop retail environment that benefits both the vendor and the customer;” the gorgeous sideways smile that David flashed him when Patrick offered to let him stay at his place during the lice outbreak (in retrospect, not his most brilliant idea); the look of pure disdain and shock, curled lip and all, when Patrick told him he had a sloppy mouth; the smile pushed into his cheek, the one that always makes his dimple pop out, when Patrick caught his eye from behind the register on opening day of the store. </p>
<p>He has lots of new favorite expressions, too, including some that he’d rather not think about with Alexis in the room, but annoyed David is one of his favorites, because Patrick knows--<em>knows--</em>exactly how to tease him gently, rub a hand across his back, and kiss him on the cheek, so that his beautiful face melts immediately back into that look of awe and contentment that smooths his forehead and crinkles up the corners of his eyes. Seeing that transformation, being able to make it happen, fills Patrick with a warmth and light that he hadn't known existed until David wandered into Ray’s living room like a miracle and turned Patrick’s life gloriously upside-down.</p>
<p>“Ahem.”</p>
<p>Patrick looks away from the door at the sound of Alexis’s pointed throat clearing, and he blinks his eyes back into focus. “What’s up, Alexis?”</p>
<p>She gives him a small smile, lips slightly pursed, eyes slightly narrowed; the one that says she's hiding something. (David does that one, too.) “Oh, nothing. Just wondering what’s going on there.” She points at Patrick’s face, moving her finger in a circle. </p>
<p>“Where? On my face?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. You just had like, this cute dopey grin on your face while you were sitting there listening to David throw his little temper tantrum.”</p>
<p>Patrick glances back at the door, just as he hears David shout, “THEY’RE NOT LATE!” and he feels the corners of his mouth tick up.</p>
<p>“Right,” Alexis teases. “Like that.”</p>
<p>Patrick stands and takes a step towards the table, shrugging and shoving his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know. I was just thinking.”</p>
<p>Alexis stares at him for a moment, her eyes unblinking but not unkind. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you.”</p>
<p>Patrick feels his cheeks heat. It’s not a question. She knows. </p>
<p>All this time, Patrick has been trying to learn the Roses, to understand them a fraction of the way that David does, because he loves David. And since David loves his family—although, Patrick knows, he’s only said it to them twice—Patrick is going to love them, too. But maybe, all this time, Alexis has also been trying to learn Patrick, to understand <em> him </em> a fraction of the way David does, because she loves David. </p>
<p>And David loves Patrick.</p>
<p>That’s not a question, either. Patrick is sure of it. David has shown him in countless ways how he feels: the look on his face when Patrick performed during open mic night, and the way David kissed him after, when it was just the two of them left in the store they had built together; David’s forgiveness after the betrayal of Rachel, when he could have just written Patrick off as yet another tick mark on a long list of bad relationships; his willingness to put himself out on a limb with his ridiculous, amazing lip sync after he knew he had hurt Patrick; the way he always cuddles into Patrick when they crawl under the covers in Patrick's rented room, and looks at Patrick like he's something beautiful and sparkling and surreal.</p>
<p>“Yeah," Patrick confesses, because why lie? He walks the rest of the way to the table. "I, um… I think he’s not ready to hear it yet. But...soon.” He pulls out a chair and sits down across from Alexis. </p>
<p>Alexis blinks rapidly at him a few times, which he thinks is good, and boops him on the nose, which he knows is. So he decides to take a risk, and shares his whole truth.</p>
<p>“It’s getting harder and harder not to say it, you know? I feel like it’s right there, all the time, on the tip of my tongue. I just want him to know. Even if he doesn’t say it back, I want him to know how much he means to me. He deserves to know."</p>
<p>He holds Alexis’s gaze, and her soft smile falters at the corners just slightly as something dark flickers across her eyes—sadness, maybe, or wistfulness—and Patrick wonders if she's thinking about Ted again. But the look is gone as quickly as it appeared, replaced by sparkling aqua.</p>
<p>“Mmm. And you’re sure you want...all of that?” Alexis waves a hand in the general direction of the door, just as David pushes through it, mid-eye roll.</p>
<p>“Ugh, okay, let's go before he finds something else to complain about. I’m all packed." He picks up his bag from where he had abandoned it on the dresser and zips it up, before turning back to Patrick. "Ready?"</p>
<p>Patrick stands from the chair and moves toward him, helplessly drawn into David's orbit like always. He wraps an arm around David's lower back and pulls him in for a quick kiss. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go."</p>
<p>David leads them to the door, and Patrick shoots a wink and a small smile over his shoulder at Alexis, a look that he hopes says, “Yes, I’m absolutely sure.” She nods at him before looking back down at her work, and Patrick pulls the door closed behind him.</p>
<p>Soon. He'll tell David soon.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm on <a href="https://designatedgrape.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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